Our pupil library assistants have been busy this month! They’ve been working on displays, helping this year’s S1 pupils learn to use the library and getting ready for a new batch of volunteers starting in October. They’ve also been going through lots of lovely new books and choosing their favourites to spotlight. Read on for some new book recommendations and to find out what we’re all reading this month in St Roch’s School Library. 

New books top picks  by Rose and Jorjo

Click the covers to find out more!

This month the library team are reading…  

The maze runner / James Dashner   

When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he’s not alone. He’s surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade – a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they came to be there – or what’s happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything – even the Grievers, half-machine, half-animal horror that patrol its corridors, to try and find out. 

The witchery / S. Isabelle 

 Fear and prejudice still fuel the uneasy truce between humans and witches who are forced to work together when the Haunting Season begins at Mesmortes Coven Academy, and Wolves rise from the swamp to feed. With this approaching, two local boys prepare to make their first sacrifices to the witches in exchange for protection.

But as they become involved with the witches’ plan to end the Wolves’ reign of terror once and for all, old dangers lie in wait. 

Heartstopper : volume 1 / By Alice Oseman

Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they’ve never met … until one day when they’re made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance.

But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised. 

The Raven boys / Maggie Stiefvater

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve… 

Either you’re his true love… or you killed him.” 

Part of a clairvoyant family, Blue has spent sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. So when she meets Gansey’s spirit on the corpse road, Blue knows that either he is her true love – or she has killed him. 

The boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and he is a student at Aglionby, a wealthy local private school. With three other mysterious and privileged boys, he is on a quest to find the grave of Glendower – a Welsh king buried somewhere on a Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour. 

Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey really her true love – the one she is destined to kill? 

Death note 1  / Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects – and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Noteto rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life? 

Last but not least Miss Barron is reading Wool / Hugh Howey.  If you are a fan of sci-fi or dysoptian-end-of-the-world settings, you’ll love it.  

In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.
Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.
To live, you must follow the rules. But some don’t. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.
Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside.
Jules is one of these people. She may well be the last.